Cheyney Group Blog - Last week’s column looked at five essential steps that business owners want to review BEFORE setting up QuickBooks software. This week, we’ll provide insights on correctly using the lists, templates and integrated modules in QuickBooks.

1. First and foremost (and regularly) – READ your reports.

If your reports are garbage, your set-up, mapping and/or transactional use are garbage. And, yes... “garbage” is a technical accounting term. Get some professional help in fine-tuning and correcting them. Visit our Twitter Page.

2. Understand the intended flow of QuickBooks’ transactions and use the integrated modules and features properly.

When you are using QuickBooks’ templates and forms, the software is posting debits and credits for you in the transaction log. For example, if you use “Enter Bills” the information is posted to your A/P report and your expense account. Then you must use “Pay Bills” feature properly to remove bill from your A/P report. If instead, you directly write a check from QuickBooks’ checking module, you fail to remove the A/P from the report, AND you double your expenses.

3. Use the pre-set templates for transactions correctly.

QuickBooks’ forms, lists and templates are meant to be used as integrated modules — not stand-alones. Features in one module are integrated to affect the other modules. Do not make journal entries into your A/R, A/P, Payroll and Sales Tax modules — learn to use the specific features to post transactions properly. When you make journal entries to “clean” your company financial statements, you have not cleared the root of an issue, thus leaving the managerial reports messy, which then don’t reconcile with the financial statements.

For instance, customers should be listed as customers, not vendors or others; liabilities should be liabilities, not assets; and expenses should be expenses, not assets or liabilities. When new accounts and items are set-up, your team doesn’t always understand accounting well, and these can be mis-mapped, ultimately causing “garbage” to reflect in your reports.

5. The paper trail of transactions in QuickBooks should reflect what actually occurs in real life.

Although you shouldn’t, but IF you are co-mingling money across multiple business accounts and/or personal accounts, make sure your transactions and reports reflect the movement accurately and fully.

Learning to use the QuickBooks software properly with its fully integrated modules will make your life easier; provide you the reports for decision-making and compliance quickly and accurately; and in turn, help you to run your company profitably! Learn more by visiting our Google Plus Community.

Marie Gibson, Founder of Gibson, Gale & Associates and Smart-U Learning Center, combines her knowledge of QuickBooks® software with her management expertise to help people and businesses create efficient, accurate, and easy-to-use accounting systems.